This reverent but highly accessible and creative tribute to Leonard Bernstein, by Swedish trumpeter Peter Asplund, will undoubtedly be a leading contender for his homeland's next Golden Record (Gyllene Skivan) award. It's the most important jazz album to emerge from the Nordic Area in a good long while. Asplund's collaboration with Mats Hålling--a composer and arranger who writes everything from modern classical music to Swedish pop--brings to mind, in a low key kind of way, Miles Davis' ...

As I listened to Swedish trumpeter Peter Asplund's quartet on As Knights Concur, I was reminded of another trumpeter somewhat closer to home. Whether consciously or not, Asplund channels Miles Davis in his transitional" phase shortly before Davis passed through the esoteric door of fusion" into the sleep-inducing twilight zone that marked his later years as a jazz icon.

Indeed, one of Asplund's three original compositions, Wonderyear," is reminiscent of Davis' Milestones." And there's a palpable Davis slant to his ...

Peter Asplund, one of Sweden's most talented jazz trumpeters, gets his inspiration from giants like Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown and Miles Davis but funnels it through his own, very Nordic filter. I don't pretend to sound like an American trumpeter," he says. I'm Swedish and that has to come across. As I see it, you have to be uncompromisingly yourself, pursue your own musical vision." He pauses and smiles ruefully. Then of course you have to get people to like ...

Swedish trumpet player Peter Asplund wears a good many musical hats, but it is with his jazz quartet that he's really starting to make waves. His last album with the group, Lochiel's Warning, made him something of a local hero. Now As Knights Concur seems set to put him on the road to international recognition. Forget the pompous title, it's the music that counts. Asplund's idea is that listeners should be led gently into improvisation. The opener, his own composition, ...

It took me a while to warm to Lochiel's Warning, the latest album by Swedish trumpeter Peter Asplund, and that's partly because the sequencing is flawed. As a result, it's one of those sessions wherein the whole seems less than the sum of its parts, if you follow my drift.

Asplund is a splendid trumpeter, one of Europe's finest, and his companions are world-class. Having said that, the opinion here is that not much happens before track three, Rodgers and ...

The “California connection” on this colorful studio date, recorded in January ’96, is scrupulously forged between two marvelous young Swedish musicians, Asplund and Lundgren, and a duo of long–time West Coast stalwarts, Carpenter and Kreibich. Although Asplund was only 27 at the time and Lundgren 29, they play with an awareness and maturity far beyond their years, while Carpenter (37) and Kreibich (40) balance the scales with the bright–eyed energy and enthusiasm of callow apprentices. Asplund and Lundgren met and ...

At this time in my life, I'm finally able to express myself through jazz as I have always wanted by becoming fully immersed in the music and lyrics. I love performing American Jazz
Standards and surrounding myself with world class musicians

At this time in my life, I'm finally able to express myself through jazz as I have always wanted by becoming fully immersed in the music and lyrics. I love performing American Jazz
Standards and surrounding myself with world class musicians. There is no other feeling as fulfilling as performing jazz.